Complete text printed
Chalmers talks to the press
Photo by Ron Bishop
'... the only vacancy KU had'
Editor's note—As a service to the students and faculty of the University of Kansas, the University Daily Kansan has included below the entire text of Chancellor-designate E. Laurence Chalmer's press conference conducted yesterday in the Kansas Union. Chalmers: (In reply to a question on how the university should respond to requests for more student voice.) I suppose that you might determine that question in several ways. If it's a question about how closely one should listen to student voice, I would have to reply, 'most carefully.' From my experience, more often than not, it seems to me the germ of the problem is that it is often a very real problem expressed by these groups. If you mean active involvement in the decision-making of the university, my impression is that this varies all the way from complete and total involvement in matters that directly and primarily affect students, to direct involvement in matters that relate to faculty members, or the sources of support for the institution. It's a pluralistic response, I suppose.
Press: Just to define it a little, how do you interpret the dissent among students on campuses—as a healthy sign, or a sign of illness?
Chalmers: It's a healthy sign, certainly in contrast with the decade of the fifties, where the concern was frequently the apathy of the students. Certainly with reference to the fact that our students today are concerned about the society in which they live, man's treatment of man, concerns that we pressed upon them 10-15 years ago, perhaps the more amazing part of this is they listened in the homes and the schools and have taken these concerns to heart. Frankly, I'm more concerned about the small number of students who are withdrawn from all of this.
I suppose some of the groups classified as "hippies" who are simply dropping out from their society, whether it's on campus or otherwise, present a more serious problem, a loss to the university.
Press: Many students have complaints about the University with regards to arbitrary rules and more meaningful curriculum; professors that write books and research, rather than teach. Do you believe these complaints are legitimate?
Chalmers: As I mentioned earlier, I suspect that there's always a germ of truth to each one of these, and one becomes involved in stating the degree. To be sure, some professors spend a great portion of their time on scholarly research. Whether this is abused or not tends to vary from institution to institution. I'm impressed, at the University of Kansas, by the relatively small ratio of students to faculty, which suggests that most, if not all, of the faculty members are engaged in the learning process, and apparently they are still pursuing their scholarly work during those precious hours in the evening, and on weekends.
Press: Dr. Chalmers, what do you see as your greatest challenge as you take over the chancellorship of KU? Chalmers: The most immediate challenge is to understand the University of Kansas and all of its people, and its history, and its thrust. This obviously will take quite a period of time.
I suppose another response to that would be, my preliminary glimpses of the University suggest that the calibre of student is very high, as a matter of fact, there are scarcely six public universities in the country that have a more talented student body. And
the same kinds of objective measures are available of the talents of the faculty. And then one drops down all the way to, say 30th in public institutions, with reference to level of support. The suggestion here is that perhaps the support needs to be built to a level commensurate with the talent already present.
Press: Dr. Chalmers, suppose a group of so-called dissidents seize the Administration building here at KU as they have done on other campuses. What would be your steps of action?
Chalmers: The question has to be answered in the abstract, of course. Obviously the first effort on the part of anyone should be an effort to understand why the event has taken place and whether there isn't rather prompt and amicable resolution of the event.
When the resources of the University are completely and totally exhausted, if in effect such students are disrupting the educational process for the vast majority of students and faculty, then obviously it is incumbent upon the administration to remove the disruption. Our first effort on the part of the University should be to resolve the matter.
Press: Hesistating to label you on your first day in office, but would you say that you're ready to deal rather toughly with any student dissenters, or those who plan to disrupt classes?
Chalmers: Yes, I think if it actually comes to the disruption of the educational process, I don't believe the university administration has a choice. The hope that one has of course, is that dissenters, particularly those who are engaging in peaceful dissent, are willing and anxious to bring their problems to the attention of the appropriate people on campus and to have these problems resolved in good style, good process. You're really talking about a last-resort effort on the part of the administration.
Press: Regarding the Colleges Within-the-College program, is there any hope that this type of individual attention could ever be extended to an entire university, particularly one the size of Kansas University?
Chalmers: I don't believe the program is strictly for the exceptional student. At least we've made an effort to keep the Cluster Program at Florida State independent of the honors program. I would say that the answer to your question is yes, that there is a reasonable possibility that these kinds of individualized living and learning environments can be developed for larger numbers of students, and at no additional cost. Only one caution which I've encountered so far at Florida State University is that many students do not particularly want this kind of environment. Many students come to a large public university, and almost prefer the anonymity of selecting four or five courses, and living in an apartment in town, and they don't want to become involved. So that I would stop short of suggesting that it is desirable for all students in the University.
Press: Mr. Chalmers, you had a rather good position in the educational field at Florida State, as Dean of Academic Affairs. What brought you to want to become Chancellor of the University of Kansas and go from the frying pan into the fire?
Chalmers: (Chuckle)-Well, you haven't paid much attention to what's been happening at Florida State University or you might reverse the analogy and
suggest that I was going from the fire into the frying pan.
My first response of course is a straight-forward statement, the University of Kansas is a better university by anyone's criterion. It's one that's dedicated to quality education. With reference to the change in positions, it's the only vacancy that the University of Kansas had at the moment.
Press: Mr. Chalmers, there is presently quite a bit of controversy here at the KU campus over the ROTC program and whether college credit should be given to that.
Chalmers: I haven't, frankly, given a great deal of thought to this. I'm quite committed to the proposition that ROTC should be available to all students who elect to pursue it. We were among the first of the State Universities about six or seven years ago to change the program from a mandatory one to a voluntary one at Florida State.
I believe the question that's under discussion now at this university and on several other campuses is the role of the academic administration in the selecting of ROTC faculty, determination of course contents and the question of academic credit, at least as applied to hours toward the degree. These are difficult, substantive questions that probably have to be discussed at considerable length, with the people in the ROTC programs and the students on the campus, before any kind of recommendation or solution can be made.
Press: Do you think that in times of student revolt, the taxpayers' interests have been emphasized enough by student administrators their opinions and their ideas.
Chalmers: I assume that the taxpayers desire a university to prepare their sons and daughters for the yet undetermined twenty-first century, and in that so doing, the University does not reflect the mobile value structure of today's citizens, but rather the kinds of preparation that will equip tomorrow's citizens for competent, thoughtful, humane roles in government, industry and society in general. As long as the University is dedicated to this, then it's meeting the expectations of the taxpayers.
I realize that the disruptive activity on perhaps two or three dozen university campuses—I would emphasize that number because there are 24,000 colleges and universities in this country—has disturbed everyone, including the faculty and students and administration on campuses where the disruption has occurred. Everyone has had a right to be genuinely concerned about that which temporarily, or in some instances, on a fairly long-term basis disrupted this goal and the educational process of preparing a new generation for much more difficult problems. Have I talked around your question or have I answered it.?
rress: I think so, yes. What I was actually getting at,
was, do you think the actions being taken after
so-called revolts have been started, do you think they
are strong enough? Stern enough?—to put down any
further revolt?
Chalmers: Eventually, on these two or three dozen campuses, fairly strong action has been taken. I believe a lot of people are critical of the extraordinary delay involved. Why, in some instances,
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STARTING TONIGHT! A GREAT MOVIE: ANTONIONI'S "BLOW-UP"
KANSAN Mar.14 1969
DON'T MISS IT!
with Vanessa Redgrave, David Hemmings
Fri., Sat., Mar. 14 & 15, in the Union Ballroom
Sunday, March 16, in Dyche Auditorium
Admission: 50c